Prosecutors say killer ditched rifle in Hudson River

Friday

Nov 9, 2012 at 2:00 AMNov 9, 2012 at 7:40 AM

CITY OF NEWBURGH — State police divers searched the Hudson River shoreline on Thursday in Newburgh, looking for the rifle a Town of Newburgh woman allegedly used to kill her ex-boyfriend in New Jersey.

BY DOYLE MURPHY

CITY OF NEWBURGH — State police divers searched the Hudson River shoreline on Thursday in Newburgh, looking for the rifle a Town of Newburgh woman allegedly used to kill her ex-boyfriend in New Jersey.

Monica Mogg, 49, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. In New Jersey, the Bergen County prosecutor says, Mogg shot and killed her former boyfriend, Arthur Noeldechan, 52, of Washingtonville, and then killed his new girlfriend, 42-year-old Jung Yi Kim, with a knife.

Mogg had stalked the couple for months leading up to the evening of Oct. 30, when she let herself into Kim's home in River Edge, N.J., and attacked the couple in an upstairs bedroom, according to Bergen prosecutor John Molinelli. River Edge cops found the bodies during a welfare check on Oct. 31.

Investigators believe Mogg took the weapons with her when she fled the house, apparently stopping along the City of Newburgh waterfront to ditch the rifle.

"That's one of the theories," state police Senior Investigator Neil Moscato said, declining to reveal more specifics.

Divers entered the Hudson's murky waters about 9 a.m., focusing on a swath of river bottom near the boat ramp on the south end. Sgt. James Whittel said they could see about a foot in front of them at best using flashlights. The divers repeatedly stretched a rope between two weights, searched along the line, moved one of the weights and began again.

"We find that is a slow but extremely effective method of searching the bottom," Whittel said.

State police Capt. Joseph Tripodo declined to say how state police came to focus on the river, other than that New York troopers and investigators had worked with the Bergen prosecutors since the beginning.

"We've really been giving them any assistance we can," Tripodo said.

In more than seven hours of searching, the divers were unable to find the rifle, but the day wasn't a total loss. They discovered a car about 40 feet out from shore. The Toyota sedan was apparently reported stolen about a year ago in the City of Newburgh. State police believe it is unrelated to the New Jersey homicides.

Mogg is expected to make her first court appearance Friday in Bergen County. She was extradited from Rocky Hill, Conn. Police in Maybrook and Montgomery had helped trace her to Connecticut after learning from relatives that Mogg was missing and possibly suicidal. Police in Rocky Hill originally detained her as a missing person before learning from New Jersey officials she was a suspect in the double homicide.

Authorities had thought Mogg might make her first appearance in a Bergen jail courtroom because the courthouse lost power during Hurricane Sandy. The courthouse, located in Hackensack, N.J., reopened on Wednesday.